How to Create Your Own Monarch Butterfly Rest Stop

Aug. 19, 2014 - Habitat loss and the destruction of native plants have been responsible
for the rapid decline of the monarch butterfly, the most recognized
butterfly in North America. To help protect these majestic insects as
they migrate, citizens in the U.S. are resorting to a simple yet
powerful tool: gardening. Gardens full of milkweed and nectar plants
can serve both as rest stops for adult monarchs and as nurseries for
their eggs.

How to Create Your Own Monarch Butterfly Rest Stop

Aug. 19, 2014 - Habitat loss and the destruction of native plants have been responsible
for the rapid decline of the monarch butterfly, the most recognized
butterfly in North America. To help protect these majestic insects as
they migrate, citizens in the U.S. are resorting to a simple yet
powerful tool: gardening. Gardens full of milkweed and nectar plants
can serve both as rest stops for adult monarchs and as nurseries for
their eggs.

NICOLE HAMILTON, PRESIDENT, LOUDOUN WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY:
I was touched originally when I was just a little kid. I was seven and The National Geographic came in the mail. And I remembered my dad opening up those
pages and I saw those monarch butterflies and I thought, “Wow! That’s a magic place.”

That experience of going to the sanctuaries in Mexico was
phenomenal. You realize how small we are
in this great migration. It’s just an
amazing connection.

When people realize that this is a species that is iconic
for America and to have that slip in our lifetime is just a severe a
tragedy. And more and more people are
starting to recognize, you know, that there’s an issue.

LINCOLN BROWER, RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, SWEET BRIAR
COLLEGE:
The monarch to me is sort of like the canary in the
cornfield. I think this monarch is kind
of a warning signal. The most common
butterfly probably in the world, over a period of twenty years, is associated
with this rapidly developing agriculture just dropping down to practically
nothing. Over the past 21 years for which
we have really good data, the numbers have now dropped down to less than ten
percent of what they were.

The very fact that millions of them can aggregate in Mexico,
the fact that they can cluster in such numbers, is because they have a chemical
defense in their bodies which is derived from the milkweed plants.

NICOLE HAMILTON, PRESIDENT, LOUDOUN WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY:
What we do is we encourage people to plant the milkweed,
which will attract the adult butterflies.
And then they will lay the eggs.
Then you can raise them and really just help them reach adulthood.

The monarch caterpillars that I raise and that we encourage
people to raise are those that are wild found.
And the reason for that is with the population being so low and
essentially so fragile, we don’t want to be buying caterpillars or buying
larvae that might have disease. And the
more milkweed and the more nectar plants that we have available, the more
monarch butterflies themselves can do what they do naturally and bring back the
population.

[NICOLE HAMILTON SOT] “Thank you all for coming today. All of you coming together today, all of
things that you are doing, every milkweed plant that you plant and every nectar
plant that you plant really makes a difference.”

CHIP TAYLOR, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, MONARCH WATCH AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS:
What we are trying to do is educate the people throughout
the country that we’ve lost a lot of habitat and this is the main reason why
the monarch butterflies are down. We’re
losing something like a million to two million acres a year throughout the
country just due to development and agriculture and a number of other things
that destroy natural habitats. And so,
what that means is if we don’t compensate for that much loss every year we’re
going to continue to lose ground with pollinators, with ground nesting birds,
with monarch butterflies and everything else that shares those habitats.

NICOLE HAMILTON,
PRESIDENT, LOUDOUN WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY:
A lot of times people aren’t even comfortable with planting
gardens so we wanted to show people how to do a planting, how to properly
secure the roots so that it’s touching soil.

CHIP TAYLOR, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, MONARCH WATCH AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS:
We can’t mow everything into oblivion, we can’t herbicide
everything into a monoculture. We really
have to maintain the diversity out there because that diversity is the crux,
the basis, for all of these ecosystems out there.

LINCOLN BROWER,
RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE:
I am optimistic. I
think that they can be saved. And I
think the reason they can be saved is because enough people care about
them. Monarchs are very prolific
insects. Each female is able to lay up
to 300 eggs. And if the monarchs can get
in three or four generations in a row and have a good summer up here in the
breeding range, then they’ll come back.

NICOLE HAMILTON, PRESIDENT, LOUDOUN WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY:
I might just plant my one monarch way station which is just
a raindrop. But then if my neighbor sees
it and plants one too, and another neighbor sees it and then we start to grow
them, then it becomes something significant.

I feel like the people of my generation are responsible for
making sure that everybody looking forward still has that experience and that
those monarchs, that great migration, is still happening.

How to Create Your Own Monarch Butterfly Rest Stop

Aug. 19, 2014 - Habitat loss and the destruction of native plants have been responsible
for the rapid decline of the monarch butterfly, the most recognized
butterfly in North America. To help protect these majestic insects as
they migrate, citizens in the U.S. are resorting to a simple yet
powerful tool: gardening. Gardens full of milkweed and nectar plants
can serve both as rest stops for adult monarchs and as nurseries for
their eggs.